Ruth L. Schwartz: "Tangerine"

It was a flower once, it was one of a billion flowers
whose perfume broke through closed car windows,
forced a blessing on their drivers.
Then what stayed behind grew swollen, as we do;
grew juice instead of tears, and small hard sour seeds,
each one bitter, as we are, and filled with possibility.
Now a hole opens up in its skin, where it was torn from the
branch; ripeness can’t stop itself, breathes out;
we can’t stop it either. We breathe in.

"Tangerine" by Ruth L. Schwartz, from Dear Good Naked Morning. © Autumn House Press, 2005.  

Image credit: "Peeled Tangerine," oil painting by Justin Clayton, 2005 (originally color).